1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to gaming systems and devices. More particularly, the disclosed embodiments relate to a method, system, and device where a plurality of gaming element indicia are randomly selected and positioned before being evaluated for payouts via a first set of rules based on the type of indicia and on a second set of rules based on position.
2. Related Art
There are known games involving the random selection of a plurality of gaming elements that are evaluated based on a first set of game rules based only on the type or value of the indicia, such as the selection of five cards from a deck of playing cards in Video Poker games or such as the rolling of five dice in poker dice games.
In some of these games, often referred to as “stud” games, the final gambling result is based entirely on the initial indicia selection. In other such games, often referred to as “draw” games, one or more of the indicia may be changed based on game rules or player selection prior to evaluation of the final gambling result.
In some implementations, such as with physical dice or with digitally generated dice meant to visually emulate physical dice, the positioning of the indicia can be in any location within a common defined area within the game field.
In other implementations selected indicia are positioned at specific locations such as each of the 5 cards visible in Video Poker always being positioned in the same location on the game field, but the actual ordering of the cards is not considered for the purposes of gambling evaluation.
In other implementation, such as Video Poker variations where a subset of the defined awards (usually a Royal Flush dealt in rank-ascending order and/or in rank-descending order), the order of the indicia may or may not matter based on the outcome.
Other implementations, such as the Power Dice game that evaluates dice arranged in a grid based on indicia value and position, comparable to slot machine games that evaluate slot reel symbols based on the appearance of each symbol and its location relative to other symbols with respect to positional patterns often referred to as paylines or pay lines, the positioning of the indicia is fundamental to the gambling evaluation. However, card and dice differ from slot games insofar as slot machines involve gaming elements constrained to specific locations, especially in terms of horizontal placement viz. a viz. different reel strips assigned to different columns whereas dice and cards are freely positionable.
Some of these games include gaming elements that present a plurality of components per indicia, such as a suit designator and a rank designator that appear on most playing cards and certain types of dice. In such games, award definitions can be based on either or both types of indicia components, such as the following example traditional poker ranks:
TABLE 1Royal Flush (suit and rank)Straight Flush (suit and rank)Four-of-a-Kind (rank)Full House (rank)Flush (suit)Straight (rank)Two Pair (rank)Pair (rank)
Other of these games include gaming elements that present only a single component per indicia, such as the number of spots or pips visible on the top-most side of a rolled or thrown die. In such games, award definitions are based solely on the single type of indicia component, such as shown in the following poker-dice ranks:
TABLE 2Five-of-a-KindAll five dice display same valueFour-of-a-KindFour of the five dice display the same value and oneother die displays a different valueFull HouseThree dice display the same first value and two otherdice display the same second valueThree-of-a-KindThree dice display the same first value and two otherdice display each a value that does not match any othervisible valueTwo PairTwo dice display the same first value and two otherdice display the same second value and one other diedisplays a value that does not match any other visiblevaluePairTwo dice display the same value and three other dicedisplay each a value that does not match any othervisible value
There are also known games whereby the evaluation of the gambling outcome is based solely on the positioning of one or more game elements relative to one or more other game elements, such as which marked roulette wheel well a roulette ball lands in roulette, or such as which wheel slice on a rotating aligns with one or more wheel pointers or flippers in the Money Wheel game or in Wheel of Fortune slot game bonus.
There continues to be a need for devices and methods of conducting and playing new and exciting wagering and casual games.